Chapter 7: A Whore

A/N: Wow! You guys really blow me away and humble me with your kind words! I thoroughly enjoy reading your thoughts, predictions, and feelings and I am grateful that this little corner of the Peaky Blinders fanfic universe piques your interest. Cheers!

~o0o~

Tommy drank. He drank like a man finally tasting water after days in the desert. He drank and never once made his way to the table where his brothers and sister and she sat. John said he had something important to announce. Tommy waved him off. Ada tried to pull him over there too and he ignored her. Tommy knew that if he went over to that table, he would make a critical mistake and jeopardize what little positive emotion Sophie felt for him.

So, he drank until everything around him was almost beyond comprehension. Usually that was Arthur's party trick. Tommy was always in control – he had to be. If he wasn't, someone was going to end up hurt. There were people all over the city on this new Inspector's payroll looking for the guns he was hiding, even though Tommy had cut himself a deal with the old man. It was irresponsible to get that drunk, but Tommy kept sliding his glass over to Harry for him to refill it. All because he couldn't bear to watch what was happening at the table on the far side of the pub, yet he couldn't tear his eyes away.

Henry, a Blinder and one of John's buddies from the war, was bending over backwards to impress Sophie. He had his arm around her and had her laughing. It made Tommy's grip tighten around his glass. He usually wasn't a jealous man – when it came to women he nearly always got what he , and when he didn't, he cut his losses without much fanfare. It felt odd to meet this new side of himself – a side that favored the torture of watching Sophie with Henry instead of going off to fuck someone else.

The moments blurred together and sped on until the pub closed. Grace cleaned glasses and Harry leafed through tips. Ada took her leave and John and Arthur laughed their drunken heads off together.

"Tommy! Come on…" Arthur waved exaggeratedly for his brother to leave with them, but Tommy shook his head. He wasn't quite sure if he was ready to stand yet and he didn't want to give his excess away. Henry and Sophie stood up from the booth as well and Henry rested his hand on the small of her back. Tommy heard mumbles about him walking her home mixed with Harry telling Grace she should be on her way. He offered to walk Grace home.

~o0o~

"Would you want to go to the pictures next weekend with me?" Henry asked Sophie as they walked down the lane, slowly, arm in arm, lingering together as John and Arthur drunkenly stumbled ahead of them. Sophie truthfully didn't know what to say. She had never been asked on a date before by a boy.

"That would be nice. I will have to ask, though." Sophie told him with a smile in the darkness. He nodded eagerly. Henry was drunk but didn't forget that asking a member of the Shelby family, blood or not, on a date was a risk.

"You just let me know, sweetheart." They stopped on the doorstep and he leaned in closer to her and her heart started to race, but not in the way she expected. She put a hand against his chest to create some distance.

"I'll talk to you soon." It was all she said before she slipped inside the door. She had almost had her first kiss but pulled away and didn't know why. She had a nice time with Henry. She was floating in a world of happiness induced by too much beer. But still, when his lips got close to hers, she just didn't feel anything. She felt like kissing him wouldn't be fair.

She looked around the empty, dark kitchen, noting that Arthur and John must have already passed out in their beds. She climbed the stairs towards hers, dizzy.

~o0o~

"Would you like to come in?" Grace asked Tommy, searching his blue eyes for any hint of what he might be feeling or thinking. He had offered to walk her home so she wouldn't be alone so late, but hadn't said a word to her beyond that. She was running out of time with him.

Her question pulled Tommy away from his thoughts and he considered it. He wanted to know more about Grace, if nothing else, and it would be nice to sleep with someone he didn't have to pay. But, thoughts of Sophie disappearing into the night with Henry gnawed at him.

"Thank you, Miss Burgess, but maybe another time." Tommy gave her a small nod and left her fumbling with her key. He took ten steps into the darkness and then turned around. "Have you ever been to the races?"

Grace paused, one foot over the threshold into her small flat. "No."

"You are going with me. Next Saturday. I'll come 'round for you here. Wear something nice." Tommy told her and then continued his walk back to Watery Lane, his hand diving into his pockets for a cigarette.

He didn't know what exactly compelled him to ask. A combination of loneliness, drunkenness, and rare self-doubt. John wouldn't want Sophie at the races. Neither would Polly. She couldn't go. But Tommy certainly couldn't walk in and see Billy Kimber without a pretty girl on his arm.

The closer he got to the offices and the familiar, comforting pull of his family home, the more he thought of Sophie and how a few long drags from his pipe would momentarily sort all of his feelings out so he could get a decent nights' sleep.

The house was silent and he locked the kitchen door behind him before climbing up the stairs. He was still piss drunk and stumbled on the second to last stair before the third-floor landing. He put his hand out to stop himself from landing on his face, but when he stood up, his dizziness couldn't obscure Sophie standing in front of him.

"Are you alright, Tommy?" she asked, quietly. She looked sleepy and her eyes were a little glassy from the beer, but he was sure his mouth fell open when he saw her. She was wearing a thin, long night gown and her brown hair tumbled messily over her shoulders. He could barely make out the peaks of her nipples under the fabric and his jealousy from earlier rushed through him once more.

"Did he touch you?" Tommy pulled himself up back to his full height and completely ignored her politeness.

"Who?"

"Henry."

Sophie thought about telling Tommy that Henry had almost kissed her. And would have if she hadn't pushed him back. Even though she strangely felt compelled to say something, he didn't need to know. She'd tell Ada tomorrow. "Why would you ask that?"

"I saw you leave with him. I saw his hands all over you all night, Sophie." He added her name to his sentence, both wanting to intimidate her and liking the way it sounded on his lips. "I told you I didn't want you going to the pub with any men."

"You told me not to go with any man that wasn't a Blinder. Henry's a Blinder. And we went because John is going to get married and we were celebrating that, but you couldn't care less and sulked by the bar the whole night!" Sophie's tone changed but she didn't raise her voice lest she wake up the children sleeping soundly down the hall.

Tommy froze. He could hear Arthur's snores now and the quiet rustles of John's children turning over in their beds. He took Sophie by her thin arm and walked with her to his room at the end of the hall, led them both in, and closed the door. She watched him, bewildered, as he turned on the lamp by his bed. He could see her more clearly now and she self-consciously crossed her arms over her chest.

"Like I said…" Sophie began but he cut her off.

"I don't care if Henry is a Blinder. He's not family. He's older than you and he'll take advantage of you. I trust him, but not with you. Are we clear?"

"No. He wants to take me to the pictures and I think I'd like to go."

"That's not happening." Tommy laughed a bit. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It didn't help that everything in the room was slightly off-kilter. He sat down on his bed. "You are busy. You work for me and you take care of John's children. If you want to go to the pictures, you and Ada go on your day off - since the two of you are back in good graces.

Sophie noted the slight bitterness in his tone and curled her toes at the draftiness of his room. There wasn't much that signaled it belonged to him or was even lived in other than the indent on his mattress and his clothes hanging neat and pressed in the small, open closet.

"I won't be watching the children anymore when John is married."

"And who the hell is John marrying?"

"Lizzie Stark."

Tommy was certain his night couldn't get any worse. First watching Henry and Sophie together, and now having her standing in his room looking like an angel while pushing every single one of his buttons. And now Lizzie was going to marry his brother. "Lizzie Stark?"

"That's what I said," Sophie shifted her weight, "Tommy, I really should go to bed."

"Lizzie Stark. John is marrying Lizzie Stark. Has he asked her yet?"

"Do you know her, or something?" Sophie was truthfully a bit nervous about the haunted look in Tommy's eyes.

"Yeah. I know her." Tommy ran his hands through his hair and groaned. "I fuck her."

The look on Sophie's face made him perversely satisfied and he hated it. Part of him wanted her to feel something for him, even it was simply disgust. The other part of him didn't want her to judge him for what he does.

"She's your girlfriend?"

"For fuck's sake…" Tommy sighed, "She's a whore. I've been seeing her since I got back from the war. Not that often. Lately…" he stopped when he saw her eyes widen, "It doesn't matter. John can't marry her."

"Because she's a whore or because you want her for yourself?" Sophie felt anger rising in her chest. She didn't like what she was hearing. She felt protective over John and betrayed for him. And she wanted to find this Lizzie and tell her off. How dare she tell John she loved him if she was sleeping with Tommy? But how dare Tommy dictate what anyone else could and couldn't do if they were happy? The anger kept welling up inside of her – wanting to protect John and the children who were practically her siblings.

"I don't want her." Tommy looked at Sophie and shook his head. He wanted the woman standing in front of him. But she would never know that. He'd only been seeing Lizzie as a sad substitute. "But you wouldn't want John's children being raised by a whore, would you?"

Sophie didn't know what to say at first. He instincts told her no. She was angry at this woman and had never even met her. But she was also angry at Tommy for being so condescending. "You like her enough to pay her to spread her legs for you, but you don't respect that she'd be a good mother or wife?" She was shocked at her own words, but surely John must know what Lizzie is and loves her anyway. But that's for him to decide.

"Enough." Tommy told her. "I'll talk to John in the morning. If he's serious about this, then Lizzie has been lying to him about what she's been doing. Either way he'll have to find someone else. And you'll have to find someone else to go to the pictures with".

Sophie quickly crossed the space of cold wood floor to his door and slipped out, eager to get back to her warm bed and away from him. But even tucked under her blankets, she couldn't help but conjure up her own image of Lizzie with Tommy.

~o0o~

Sophie grimaced at the sun shining across her eyes through the dirty window. The light told her that it was later than she normally woke up and her head ached. She had never had that much to drink before but it wasn't so much that she didn't remember with crystal clarity what had happened last night.

She didn't hear the children in the next room and quickly dressed for the day and went to see if Ada was still in her room. She noticed Tommy's door was open and his room was vacant. If it was as late as she thought, she was sure he had already spoken to John.

"Do you feel as awful as I do?" Sophie asked her friend after Ada called out for her to come in her room. She was hunched over the wash basin.

"Yes, but for different reasons." Ada sighed. Her morning sickness hadn't stopped and she was currently cleaning herself up from this mornings' bout. "Looked like you and Henry were having fun last night".

Sophie sat down on Ada's bed and tucked her legs up underneath her dress. It was Sunday – race day – and the Blinders would surely already be busy at the track. She was just thankful she wasn't due at work. She didn't know if she could look at Tommy after last night.

"I was. But then he tried to kiss me."

"And?" Ada smirked, waiting for more.

"I left him standing at the door. He asked me out on a date. But I'm not sure…" Sophie didn't feel like going into her conversation with Tommy and why she wouldn't be allowed to go even if she wanted to.

"Well…at least you won't end up up the duff like I am." Ada laughed, "He's pretty good-looking though. You could do worse. Come on….I'm starving."

Ada and Sophie headed downstairs and found Polly at the kitchen table reading the paper. Ada grabbed a piece of buttered bread and the two girls sat down with her.

"It seems like last night was a failure for John but a success for the two of you, judging by how sick you both look." Polly lowered the paper and looked across the table at the two girls, "How are you feeling, Sophie?"

"I've felt better." Sophie blushed a bit and Polly nodded knowingly but kindly.

"I'll fix you some tea that will get rid of that headache. At least you missed the cocks fighting this morning. John's beside himself. He didn't even go to the races". Polly went on and Sophie felt her stomach drop. Clearly Tommy had confronted John about Lizzie and it didn't turn out so well.

"I don't know what he was thinking. Lizzie of all people!" Ada giggled but Sophie just ate her toast in silence.

"He's a man in love and men in love don't think with anything else but what's in their pants. Tommy set him straight," Polly sighed and then looked from Ada to Sophie and back again. "Stand up Ada."

Ada gave her a dirty look as crumbs fell from the corner of her mouth, "Why?"

"Just stand up!"

Ada pushed back her chair and stood up, annoyed, as Polly did the same and rounded the table, coming behind Ada and firmly grabbing her left breast. Ada yelped and slapped her away.

"What the fuck, Pol…"

"How long have you been pregnant?" Polly asked. There was no emotion in her voice and Sophie wanted to shrink away into nothing. Her head started throbbing worse than before.

"I'm not pregnant!" Ada protested, but it wasn't very convincing. Polly was looking her niece over and it was clear that her body was already changing.

"How long, Ada?"

"Three months, I think?" Ada bit her lip, "Maybe a little less."

Polly wrung her hands, "Whose?"

"Pol…"

"Would you rather I know, or Tommy?" Polly asked and Sophie gave her friend a look as if to say 'this is better than the alternative'.

"Fuck. It's Freddie Thorne. And he left town when the coppers were going around turning out houses looking for…" Ada stopped short at the word 'communists'.

"He'll come back, Ada. I know it." Sophie offered. Polly placed her hands on her hips. Ada being pregnant was one thing. Ada being pregnant, with no chance of being married, and knocked up by Tommy's enemy was another.

"He needs to marry you, Ada. But in order to marry you, he actually has to be in Birmingham. If you are three months along, you need to make a decision. I know a woman who could help you. It's better than trying to do it yourself. I got pregnant when I was sixteen and…well…I almost died trying to get rid of it." Polly leaned over the table, placing a hand on the splintery wood, struck by her memory.

"I'm not going to get rid of it, Polly. I'm keeping the baby." Ada stood her ground.

"They'll call you a whore and they'll call your baby a bastard and no one will care that Freddie didn't come back." Polly raised an eyebrow, "Do you want that?"

"He'll come back. Come on, Sophie." Ada locked her jaw and the two girls headed out into the rare sunshine of Birmingham to figure it out for themselves.